Spanish Football governing body has got the green light to welcome fans in the La Liga games from next season. In the 2020-21 season some stadiums were welcoming 5000 fans in the final two games of the league and now the government is planning to allow a larger number of crowd at the stadiums. Spanish health minister Carolina Darias has confirmed that normality is likely to resume in La Liga stadiums.
“We delete this article and can return let’s say to normality in terms of fans being allowed into stadiums. It will have to be, as it was before, the regional authorities who determine the capacity.”
The Spanish National team also played group games of Euro 2020 with 12,000 fans in La Cartuja stadium in Seville. The permission to allow 12,000 fans was in accordance to 30% crowd limit which was imposed since the final two match days of last season in La Liga.
La Liga president Javier Tebas recently said that he expects at least 70% of the fans back in the stadiums when the competition starts again in August. The fixtures for next season are yet to be declared. Tebas also recently said in a statement that the league faced hefty losses as fans were not allowed to attend the games during the 2020-21 season.
La Liga is expecting a whopping loss of €773 million as the season was played behind closes doors. According to a report by PWC, matchday income got shrunk by 66 percent to €271 million. Even the clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid have seen budgets shrink due to the pandemic.
The return of fans is a big boost for Spanish fans and clubs. The matchday revenue will help the club to recover from the pandemic. Meanwhile, there will be a much more competitive edge to games due to the presence of fans. The Spanish league witnessed a nail-biting title race last season, which was eventually settled on the final day with Atletico Madrid lifting the title after seven years.